Why do some people believe God designed every snow flake and others believe it happened because of nature?

Question

Regarding this question posted in the science category of yahoo answers: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Atltv_xbLJZcp8nSKZnseR_sy6IX?qid=20060821072527AAcZoqp
in which I asked if there is a scientific explanation for why snowflakes are all different, there are so far 3 answers. One person said God did it. Two persons have stated that snowflakes are the way they are as a result of natural forces.

Due to the scientific explanation many believe that natural forces took place on a water drop to turn it into a snowflake.
Some reject this scientific explanation and believe that it was the hand of God.

Is there a difference between these two groups. If so, what is that difference.

Are there any other things that science explains happen as a result of natural forces that some people would reject and say they were designed.

What causes someone to reject scientific explanations?

Answer 1

Why do some people believe God designed every snow flake and others believe it happened because of nature?

Because people are different and think differently.

Answer 2

That's a very good question. The knee-jerk answer lots of people would give is that those who believe God does everything are misguided, brainwashed, and ignorant of science. Okay, true, I'm sure there is a small contingent out there. However, I think we really need to look into this more deeply. I think it must stem from a lack of adequate education in science. If you don't know how it happened, it must have been God (kind of the Gap Theory i.e. God fills the gaps when we don't know how something works). I honestly think that the only way to have any scientific knowledge and believe in God would be to believe the God created the laws of science. There is simply no way to ignore or disregard simple scientific facts like the way water molecules chemically bond to form snowflakes. Evolution, okay, there is scientific evidence to support that, but there is room for skepticism and certainly questions. But a simple, time-tested, law of nature, bond between chemicals? No way!

I hope a God-believer can give an in-depth answer to this because I am very interested. If it is a function of their belief in God, that's okay, but I'm not sure exactly how they would explain that. Also, that seems a bit dangerous to me, rejecting scientific ideas that have a huge effect on your life - like how an engine functions, how humans digest the food we eat. To not truly understand things like that seems a little dangerous to me.

Answer 3

These are not different answers.Yes, nature (or science, if you will) is responsible for making all snowflakes different, but God made (makes?) nature. It's a challenge, but if you have faith you can believe in both theories. What makes people reject scientific explanations? They are seeing things only as God vs Science; it doesn't have to be like that. Look for the explanations that embrace both sides. A doctor might develop new medicine that cures cancer, but why did the doctor think along new lines? God.

Answer 4

We are a thinking species. Our brains are capable of associating information into relationships and patterns, i.e. draw conclusions about cause and effect. So we want to know the explanations for why things happen.

Science is one way to draw a conclusion. It involves a close study of reality, using sensing instruments, computer programs and mathematics. Scientific methods and tools have evolved over the centuries, and we are getting better at science.

Another way to draw a conclusion is to simply form a possible explanation and believe it without examination. Why would anyone do that? In the case of religious belief, there is a very strong need for life after death, and a very strong need for everything to make sense and for the idea that somehow, it's all under control, not just chaos. Religion satisfies these needs. So even though science is offering credible explanations for things, many people reject them in favor of their religious beliefs, because their need is so great.

Answer 5

Believing that the snow flake design was randomly created through a natural process gives people the concept that chaos can create. This leads down the path that perhaps if through random chaotic acts a snowflake design could be different that perhaps evolution can be real, and so on and so forth down the line. To retain their belief system they cut this line of thinking at the root of the problem. The snowflake.

Answer 6

Christianity is a belief based on the doctrines and teachings of the Bible and God's holy spirit.
Science is a study made my humans who base a thought or an idea on what they believe to be physical evidence.
There are lots of evidence to suggest that lots of things in the Bible are true, for example, the type of gopher wood which was used in the Biblical information about Noah and the Ark, was found by archaelogists to date back to a time in history which only correlates with the Bible.
Because human ideas are constantly changing and is really not as accurate as they claim (eg. earlier scientists believed the earth was flat... now we know the earth is round). so when scientists come up with theories, its not to say they're lies, its just that our human understanding of the world is limited, but as Christians, we understand the world through spiritual eyes. We understand that Love is a force which is stronger than any other scientific force ever known...and yet, the Bible says that God is Love.... Perhaps this is something for you to think about? May God bless you with answers, take care.

Answer 7

It is God that did it. He created it. Read this article to find out:

A snowflake always has six symmetric arms (along three symmetric axes), which arises from the hexagonal crystal structure of ordinary ice (known as ice Ih) along its 'basal' plane.

There are, broadly, two possible explanations for the symmetry of snowflakes. Firstly, there could be communication or information transfer between the arms, such that growth in each arm affects the growth in each other arm. Surface tension or phonons are among the ways that such communication could occur.

The other explanation, which appears to be the prevalent view, is that the arms of a snowflake grow independently in an environment that is believed to be rapidly varying in temperature, humidity and other atmospheric conditions. This environment is believed to be relatively spatially homogeneous on the scale of a single flake, leading to the arms growing to a high level of visual similarity by responding in identical ways to identical conditions, much in the same way that unrelated trees respond to environmental changes by growing near-identical sets of tree rings. The difference in the environment in scales larger than a snowflake leads to the observed lack of correlation between the shapes of different snowflakes.

However, the concept that no two snowflakes are alike is not necessarily true. Strictly speaking, it is extremely unlikely for any two objects in the universe to contain an identical molecular structure; but, there are, nonetheless, no known scientific laws which prevent it. In a more pragmatic sense, it's more likely, albeit not much more, that two snowflakes are visually identical if their environments were similar enough, either because they grew very near one another, or simply by chance. The American Meteorological Society has reported that matching snow crystals were discovered by Nancy Knight of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The crystals were not flakes in the usual sense but rather hollow hexagonal prisms.

From the article above, you can easily see God's hand in it. He is the one who created everything and yes to all you doubters, he created snowflakes which make up snow. I hope I have been able to convince you that God created snowflakes.

Answer 8

Thats a lot of material, and really a lot of things for one post !
What do you believe, and/or are you looking for what is true ?
And are you going to base your choices solely on what you discover here on this site ?
Any way im sorry, I should be answering not asking, but here goes...If you go to a docter, with a certain type of problem, chances are great that you will be told that you need medication to solve the problem and if you go to a so called shrink for the same problem he may advise you to take a little medication with a lot of pshycotherapy because that is what he does best, and so forth ! So my point is, if you are looking for an answer to who or what made the snowflakes, then where does one go for the correct answer ?

Answer 9

Conflicting information. Like if you program a robot to do a specific task, and give it the exact steps to take for each action. Then, someone comes along and tries to get the robot to do the same task in a different way. Unless they have the passcode that you set up, the robot will just repeat what you told it originally, even if the new information is more efficient and corrects old flaws. So, unless the people who did the brainwashing can undo it, those who are brainwashed might never come around to the updates. In short, maybe these people's parents, or teachers could get through to them, if they saw the light of science.

Answer 10

I don't reject scientific explanations at all, I believe that everything we call science is ultimately created by God.

Say I make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It's made up of peanut butter, jelly and bread. There's the scientific explanation. Well, say I know how to make peanut butter and jelly, so I made those things out of peanuts and fruit, so I created the sandwich.

I don't know if that analogy works, but what I'm trying to say is that I believe God created science. Ohh wait, I just found a verse this morning that got me thinking on this point:

"And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with." - Ecclesiastes 1:13

Our God-given drive to question and explore is truly a great thing :)

Answer 11

~gasp~ maybe science and creative design can coexist. God created the weather that makes snow. And the natural forces of nature created the actual snowflake. God is the creator of everything that it took to make a snowflake. I choose to believe God.